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Over-the-Counter Pain relief as Effective as Opioids After Wisdom Tooth Extraction
Table of Contents
The Study: A Comparative Analysis of Pain Relief
Over-the-counter pain medications work as well or better than opioids after wisdom tooth extraction for both men and women, according to a Rutgers Health-led follow-up to a landmark paper on comparative pain relief.
The initial study, involving over 1,800 trial patients, revealed that a combination of ibuprofen and acetaminophen provided superior pain relief compared to hydrocodone with acetaminophen during the first two days after surgery, and greater overall patient satisfaction throughout the recovery period. This new subgroup analysis, published in JAMA Network open, confirms that these results are consistent across both male and female patients.
“We wanted to determine whether the pain medication’s effects were consistent in males and females separately.And what we found is that in both subgroups (males and females), the non-opioid was superior for that first day and night, and then no worse than the opioid for the rest of the post-op period.”
Janine Fredericks Younger, associate professor at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine and lead author of the analysis
The research was funded by an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and compared patients receiving 400 milligrams of ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) combined with 500 milligrams of acetaminophen (tylenol) to those receiving 5 milligrams of hydrocodone with acetaminophen.
Addressing Gender Differences in Pain Perception
The gender-specific analysis was particularly critically important as women consistently report higher pain levels after surgery, leading to questions about whether pain medications have differing effects based on sex.
“There’s obviously different biological mechanisms, different hormones involved,” said Cecile Feldman, dean of Rutgers School of Dental Medicine and senior author of both studies. “But results confirm that the analgesic effect for both groups is the same.”
Methodology: Rigorous Data Collection and Analysis
The researchers intentionally enrolled equal numbers of men and women to enable robust subgroup analyses. Patients from five universities tracked their pain twice daily for nine days using electronic diaries, assessing not only pain levels but also sleep quality, ability to perform daily activities, and overall satisfaction.
On every metric, the over-the-counter combination either matched or surpassed the opioid in effectiveness. Patients taking non-opio
